Mike Savlen joins us from New Hampshire today. Mike is an artist whose past professions have run from ditch digger to art director, victorian restoration painter to nightclub owner, sign carver to commercial fisherman and many more in between. Today he splits time between Costa Rica and Cape Cod. We’ll talk about Mike’s gamefish illustrations, marine paintings, his new bragging rights portraits, and lots of other stuff on today’s Fish Schtick.

Brian / Moldy Chum News
Played outside at all in the last week?

Slab of the month run-off between a carp and an Atlantic, who’d have thought?

Are federal bureaucrats intentionally attempting to limit angler participation in the “public process” for a management plan that could close the nation’s waters to recreational fishing?

No one in the fishing industry is making such an accusation. But they are pointing out some facts that certainly could lead a suspicious mind in that direction: As of Monday afternoon, Oct. 19, the web site for the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force has yet to post the dates for the final public meeting, set for the Great Lakes area.

Yet an internal memo for task force members, dated Oct. 14 and coded “not for public distribution,” says the meeting will occur Oct. 29-30 in Cleveland.

Whether intentional or accidental, a delay in public posting of this information certainly could prevent activist anglers from having adequate time to plan on attending.

And activist anglers have been busy lately, expressing their displeasure that the task force gave no consideration to the value of recreational angling in its Interim Report, released in mid-September.

That report is the first major step for establishing a federal strategy for managing the nation’s oceans, coastal waters, and Great Lakes, as required in a memo from President Barack Obama on June 12.

As instructed by the President, the task force is to develop, “with appropriate public input, a recommended framework for effective coastal and marine spatial planning” by Dec. 9.

Especially in light of the task force’s reluctance to acknowledge the importance and value of recreational angling, the fishing industry justifiably fears that public waters could be closed to sports as well as commercial fishing.

Angling advocates point out that “senior policy-level officials” on the task force seem inclined to ally themselves with preservationists and environmental extremists who want to create “no fishing” preserves, with no scientific justification.

This is an historic moment in time regarding the future of recreational fishing, and not just in the oceans. Task force is directed to “develop a framework” for managing Great Lakes as well, and, from there, it’s a short hop to inland lakes and rivers. Do we really want federal bureacrats, who aren’t educated in natural resources and natural systems but will bow to political pressures, in charge of our fisheries, or state fish and wildlife agencies who (by and large) make decisions based on science and sound research?